China evictions increase, leading to more unrest

Oct. 12, 2012
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Gu Wenzhu, 54, shows pedestrians pictures of her deceased parents. She came from Shanghai Paodongxinqu Gaoxinzhen. Her house was forcibly demolished by the local authorities and her father, Gu yatao, 79, and mother, Song Damei, 80, were beaten by demolition workers and died, she said. / Amnesty International

by Calum MacLeod, USA TODAY

by Calum MacLeod, USA TODAY

BEIJING â?? China says it has worked hard to overhaul its judicial system in ways that better protect human rights, but one of the country's most widespread abuses is increasing and is a leading cause of unrest.

The forced eviction of residents from their homes and farmland has quickened over the past three years, human rights group Amnesty International said in a report issued Thursday.

Evictions make up the leading cause of protests here, especially in the countryside. Homeowners have been risking violence and jail to prevent their ouster and protest the often inadequate compensation offered by developers and officials.

"Millions of people" have been evicted "without appropriate legal protection and safeguards," and often with violence, Amnesty said.

"The problem of forced evictions represents the single most significant source of popular discontent in China and a serious threat to social and political stability," said the group, citing Chinese academic research.

An increasing number of those being evicted have turned to self-immolation as a desperate protest of last resort.

In a recent example, police in northeast China last month shot and killed a man who had set himself on fire while resisting a demolition crew. The official explanation from police was that the officer had acted in self-defense.

Forced eviction "has become a routine occurrence in China and represents a gross violation of China's international human rights obligations on an enormous scale," said the Amnesty report 'Standing Their Ground,' which looked at evictions from February 2010 to January 2012.

Violent forced evictions are increasing as local authorities, often highly indebted, seize land and sell it off to developers to meet bank repayments for funds borrowed to finance projects, Amnesty said.

Income from the sale of land rights to developers represents local governments' single largest source of revenue. And officials looking for promotion also rely on developing land to deliver the high growth rates their superiors demand, the group said.

Of 40 forced evictions Amnesty examined in detail, nine culminated in the deaths of people protesting or resisting eviction, including Wang Cuiyan, 70, who was buried alive in March 2010 when resisting a demolition crew at her house in Wuhan city, Hubei Province.

Amnesty said it found 41 cases from 2009 to 2011 of people lighting themselves on fire to protest evictions, compared with fewer than 10 cases reported in the previous decade.

Former homeowner Hu Cheng understands the level of desperation that provokes such extreme steps.

Since his apartment in the southwest city of Chongqing was demolished in December 2010, Hu has been detained by police several times and beaten twice he says for trying to sue local government for a higher rate of compensation. The State Council, a Cabinet-like government body, stated this week that China is continuing to make reforms to "ensure judicial impartiality." Hu is unconvinced.

"I think the central government is good, and so is their white paper on judicial reform, but they don't know what goes on in local areas" which are very corrupt, said Hu, 40.

Uniformed and plainclothes police now watch his rented apartment, he said.

"If there's really no way to continue, I will go to the city government and set myself on fire," Hu said.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has acknowledged that land grabs and housing demolitions are among China's most pressing problems. New regulations in January 2011 addressed urban evictions.

"But in reality, especially at the grass-roots level, the prohibitions cannot be effectively carried out due to the constraints of various interests," legal expert He Bing wrote in the Global Times newspaper. "Some law-enforcement officers even hold that local policy is above the law, and care more about their own performance assessments than the public good."

After a demolition many Chinese are frustrated at the lack of legal recourse given that Chinese courts remain subject to Communist Party control over rulings.

In Chongqing, Liu Fuxia, 48, saw his three-story house demolished to make way for road expansion in March 2011.

"It's not about the money, people need their dignity, too," he saidof his fruitless legal battle.

Unlike Hu Cheng, who failed even to file his case, a local Chongqing court accepted Liu's lawsuit. But in the end it found in favor of the local government.

"I'm a law-abiding citizen who wants to solve problems according to the law, but I find I am always the loser," Liu said. "Now the rules and laws keep me going round a maze. But I'll never give up. I believe I can find justice somewhere."

As China's ruling Communist Party begins a once-a-decade transition to new leaders next month, Amnesty's Nicola Duckworth, senior director of research, hopes the party acts on Wen's recognition of the problem and stops all forced evictions.

"This needs judicial reform, implementation of the law, and the political will to drive it through," she said. "Beijing needs to take on the idea of growth at any cost that is causing millions of Chinese to suffer."